


About to Explode

by moretomhardy



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek Hale, BAMF Stiles, Emissary Stiles Stilinski, Hale Pack 2.0, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski is Part of the Hale Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:13:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28200693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moretomhardy/pseuds/moretomhardy
Summary: Stiles accidentally taps into a massive fount of magical energy that just might let him and the rest of the pack finish college without solving a supernatural crisis every time they turn around. If only it didn't require Derek taking off so many clothes.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 12
Kudos: 151
Collections: The Sterek Secret Santa - Edition 2020





	About to Explode

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nostalgiafan123](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=nostalgiafan123).



> For nostalgiafan123 on tumblr. I didn't get any angst in, but hopefully there's enough pack interaction and powerful Stiles for you to enjoy!
> 
> For those keeping notes, this takes place a few years after an alternate 3A where everybody lives, Scott does not become an alpha, and Stiles comes into some magical powers. Scott also conveniently went to school on the east coast with Allison, while we're pretending there is a Beacon Hills University with a prestigious enough math program to keep Lydia around.

Derek was flung back and there was an ugly snapping sound as he hit the ground hard with a leg twisted unnaturally underneath himself. Derek yelled and Stiles ran to his side, heart in his throat as he put his hands on Derek, the betas closing in a protective circle around them.

"Derek, are you okay?" Stiles said frantically, hands fluttering over Derek's shoulders. Derek groaned and Stiles continued, "okay, dumb question, there's no way you're okay after what I just saw and heard. But are you healing?"

Derek sat up and straightened out his leg with a grunt of effort. He was breathing hard through gritted teeth, a sheen of sweat over paler-than-usual skin. "Working on it." Derek's voice was thin with pain, and he grabbed handfuls of leaf-litter and dirt in white-knuckled fists as he hunched in on himself.

"Shit, shit shit shit shit," Stiles chanted, looking around at the rest of the pack. They were holding their own for now, but they were quickly loosing ground -- one of Isaac's arms was dangling uselessly and Erica had a huge gash near the base of her throat that was bleeding a waterfall down her front. They needed breathing room to heal. Stiles took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling for the candle of magic in his core, fed by the bonds to his pack mates. He got a good mental grip on it while he got a good physical grip on Derek's shoulders, bare after Derek's shirt became one of the first casualties of the night.

Stiles shoved outward with his magic, shouting the words to a shielding spell. Magic exploded through him like he had never felt before, leaving him breathless and weak in the knees. Derek whimpered and toppled to the side, bringing Stiles collapsing down on top of him.

"What the fuck was that," Erica panted.

Stiles pried his eyes open and tried to blink away sunspots that clouded his vision. "You've seen me do a shield before," Stiles slurred as he tried to untangle himself from Derek. His ears were ringing like crazy, but he didn't hear any of the chittering sounds the creatures made anymore -- maybe they'd already cleared out.

"We've seen you do a shield before," Boyd said, "and that was nothing like what you just did."

Stiles finally managed to sit up and look around. There was a starburst of cleared earth shooting out from Derek and Stiles, and a few freshly fallen tree limbs farther away.

"I'm pretty sure there was lighting coming out of the ground up to you," Isaac said, "and you blew those little gremlins out of my hearing range." He grimaced as he pulled his arm out in front of himself and popped his shoulder back into place.

"Lightning?" Stiles shook his head. "We're not on a ley line, and I wasn't pulling from the ground, anyways, that makes no sense."

"Well that's what I saw, whether it makes sense to you or not." Isaac rolled his eyes.

Boyd knelt down next to Derek, who was still curled up on the ground. "Are you okay?"

"Tired." Derek said. "You sure that lightning wasn't coming from me?"

Isaac scrunched up his face. "Could have been, I guess."

"Sure feels like someone scraped all the energy out of me." Derek flopped over onto his back to look at Stiles. "I think you healed my leg at the same time, though."

"What? How?" Stiles rubbed his hands over his head in frustration. "I guess it's possible that I tapped too much into Derek and overdid the shield, but that should not have healed anything." Stiles set his hand over Derek's heart and closed his eyes, focusing on the packbonds until he could envision them: the betas were gold, Boyd's bright and strong, Isaac's and Erica's more dim but growing brighter as they healed, Scott's a shadowy suggestion from thousands of miles away. Derek's was faint, and a much darker red then it usually was. "Fuck." Stiles let his magical vision slip away and opened his eyes to reality again. "I don't know what I did wrong, but Derek's right, all that energy came from him and he's got almost nothing left."

"That's a lot of power you've got packed away in there," Isaac said, admiring.

"I still don't get how that healed your leg, though," Stiles frowned.

"If you unleashed all of his magic, maybe it decided to help himself on the way out," Erica suggested, plopping down to sit next to Derek and Boyd. The gash on her throat had mostly closed up, Stiles was pleased to note.

"Well, I'm sorry I did it, however it happened." Stiles moved his hand off of Derek's chest.

"I'm not," Derek sighed, "we were in a bad way."

"Of course you're not," Boyd rolled his eyes. "Ever the martyr."

"I'm also happy to be done with a broken femur without any fuss. Those take hours to heal, you know."

Isaac shuddered, knowing from experience how painful that was.

"Oh no, hours to heal a bone," Stiles laughed. "Hey Derek, can you still shift even when you're magically tapped out?"

Derek lifted a hand and put out claws, seemingly without any effort.

"Can you go all the way?"

Derek rolled his shoulders and twisted into his other shape.

"That seems weird. Seems like you should need magic to shapeshift, but what do I know."

"It's not like it's effort to shift," Derek said.

The betas all made various disagreeing noises. Stiles laughed. "Looks like you're alone in that opinion."

Derek shrugged and smirked, features fading back to human. "Perks of being a born werewolf, I guess."

"Always so insufferable about that." Erica shoved at Derek's thigh.

"You feeling well enough to walk?" Boyd asked Derek. "We need to track down where those gremlins have got off to before they do any more damage."

"Walk, maybe." Derek shoved himself up to his elbows with a groan. "Not sure if I could do any fighting now."

"They were blown off in all directions, they'll probably be wanting to find each other first before they go off to cause more mayhem," Erica said.

"Erica's right, they'll get their pack back together first." Stiles rubbed at the back of his neck. "It does make this a good opportunity to go after them, though, they're already split up."

Derek growled.

"I know, big guy, you hate being out of the action, but it's probably best if you go home and sleep off the magical exhaustion. The rest of us can stay out here and do some tracking to at least thin the heard."

"Come on," Boyd clapped a hand to Derek's shoulder, "I'll get you home and then I'll come back out to join the others."

"I don't like it," Derek said.

"Didn't think you would. But do you agree to it?"

Derek huffed and pushed himself to sit up all the way, only to drop his head and squeeze his eyes shut. "Fine," he snarled.

"There we go, alpha's very begrudging blessing." Stiles slapping his thighs and stood up. "Erica, Isaac, you both healed enough to go hunting?"

"Need a snack after all that blood loss and I'm absolutely disgustingly covered in blood, but fine other than that," Erica said.

Isaac rolled his shoulders to test out the injured joint. "Yeah, I'm back to normal."

"You need me to carry you?" Boyd asked Derek.

"Just help me stand up," Derek frowned.

Boyd hummed, a disbelieving look on his face, but he grabbed Derek's arms and hauled him to his feet.

Derek stumbled and would have immediately fallen if not for Boyd's steady hands. "Okay, maybe you have to carry me." Derek's voice was strained and even softer than usual.

Boyd scooped Derek up effortlessly. "I should be back in half an hour or so, maybe a little longer," Boyd said to the others. "Got to make sure he's fed and watered before he conks out."

"I'm still right here," Derek muttered into Boyd's shoulder, "and I'm fully capable of feeding myself."

"Yeah, not when you're exhausted you're not." Boyd rolled his eyes.

"Okay, we'll see you soon, Boyd." Erica stood on her tiptoes and pecked a kiss to Boyd's cheek, then ruffled Derek's hair. "You feel better."

Derek swiped at her half-heartedly before Boyd turned and headed back towards where they had abandoned their cars.

Erica picked up Isaac's backpack from where he had dropped it when the fight started. She tossed a water bottle to Isaac and tore open a granola bar for herself. "Need anything, Stiles?"

"I'll take some water."

Erica passed him a bottle and scarfed down two more granola bars in short order. "Alright, I'm ready."

Stiles passed the bottle back to Erica, who gulped down the rest and dropped the empty in the bag before handing it to Isaac.

"The little nasties went literally every which way, so pick your direction." Isaac zipped up the bag and slung it on his back, looking expectantly at Stiles.

"I'd head towards town," Erica said. "More potential damage they could do, and it'll be easier to pick 'em off out of the thickest parts of the woods."

"Agreed," Stiles said, "towards town sounds good to me. Just keep an ear out for humans."

Isaac rolled his eyes. "We know the drill, Stiles."

The three of them set off, Stiles trusting Erica's sense of direction to keep them on the right line. "I'm gonna call Lydia and let her know we're still alive." Stiles pulled out his phone and dialled.

 _"Things going okay?"_ Lydia asked as she picked up.

"Okay overall, not as good as we hoped. I did some kind of magical overkill trying to make a shield, blew all the beasties who knows where, and siphoned off all of Derek's magical reserves, so we had to tap him out. Boyd's taking him home, Erica and Isaac and I are trying to find a few of the horrors to kill before they can pack up again."

_"Stiles, I swear to god. I thought we were done trying magical experiments in life-threatening situations?"_

"I wasn't trying to experiment!" Stiles waved his free arm for emphasis that was lost on Lydia through the phone. "I was trying to make a nice, normal shield, I have no idea what went wrong. Isaac says there was lighting coming from Derek, or maybe the ground even though we're not that close to a ley line."

 _"Lightning?"_ Lydia sighed. _"That's definitely not normal."_

"It sounds badass," Stiles grinned. "Derek was hurt and I was touching him, so I figure that had something to do with it, got too emotional or something."

 _"I'll go keep Derek company and see if I can tell if anything's out of the ordinary."_ Keys jingled in the background of the call.

"Okay, thanks. I better hang up so my hunting dogs have all their senses sharp." Stiles grinned at the twin glares focused on him for that comment.

 _"Stay safe."_ Lydia hung up.

===

Boyd tracked the other three down before they found any trace of the monsters they were tracking. After another hour of fruitless searching they called it a night and headed back towards Derek's house. Erica let them in with her key and they found Lydia writing equations at the kitchen table while Derek slept on the couch in a cocoon of blankets.

"Find any of them?" Lydia sat up and pulled off her glasses.

"No luck," Boyd huffed as he opened the fridge and started pulling out sandwich materials.

"We didn't find a single trace of them." Erica frowned and sat down at the table across from Lydia. "It's like Stiles banished them from the whole territory."

Lydia turned sharp eyes on Stiles.

"That doesn't seem very likely," Stiles said defensively. "We were probably just looking in the wrong spot."

"We covered a pretty big swath," Boyd said.

"Waste of an evening," Isaac complained. "I dislocated my shoulder and we didn't even kill any of them."

Lydia hummed, still staring at Stiles. "Stiles, what happened when you cast your malfunctioning shield?"

"It wasn't malfunctioning!" Stiles threw his arms out. "I was too good was the problem."

Lydia waved a hand like she was shooing a mosquito. "I don't care about that. What did it feel like to you? How did you do it?"

Stiles shrugged. "Same way I do it every time. Center myself on my magic, envision the flame of it, then push it out into a shield with the spell."

Lydia stared at him expectantly for a moment before prompting, "And then what?"

"And then my magic exploded like a literal bomb, I fell over, and it took a minute for my vision to clear and my ears to stop ringing."

"Don't forget the lightning," Isaac put in helpfully.

Lydia tapped her lip with her pencil for a moment before pointing the pencil at Isaac. "You said the lightning was coming from Derek or the ground, right?"

"Pretty sure it was the ground, but Derek said it must have been coming from him. They were right on top of each other and I was a little preoccupied with fighting for my life, so." Isaac shrugged.

Lydia pursed her lips. "I've read about emissaries connecting to the magic of the land through an alpha before, that's not so far fetched."

"Lydia, that takes a bunch of very specific rituals, you can't do it by accident," Stiles said.

"Supposedly," Lydia shrugged. "You're an unusual emissary, and Derek's a born werewolf for several generations back on the same territory. Norms won't necessarily apply."

"Yeah, except how werewolves aren't natural magic conduits; that's the whole point of needing the rituals."

"Maybe full-shift werewolves are," Lydia raised an eyebrow. "The Hales are an unusual bunch; we don't know much about how the full shift affects werewolves since it's such a rare trait."

Stiles groaned and rolled his neck. "Fine, you're right, as usual. I just wish I knew how it happened -- I'm pretty sure I've done magic while touching Derek before."

"Maybe Derek was never actually touching the ground before," Boyd said between bites of his sandwich.

Isaac snorted. "Is he usually levitating?"

Erica slapped Isaac in the chest. "He's normally wearing shoes, dumbass. Boyd's got a point, Derek had his hands on the ground and Stiles had his hands on Derek's bare skin, so there was a direct line."

Isaac rubbed his chest and pouted.

"You're sure saying my name a lot in here," Derek grumbled. Everyone turned to look at him where he was leaning against the doorway wrapped in a blanket, his scowl ruined by his sleep-rumpled hair and heavy eyelids.

"Derek, how are you feeling by now?" Stiles rushed over to him.

"Fine." Derek pulled his blanket a little closer. "Just cold and tired."

"So we're back to the normal healing cool down period?"

Derek shrugged and stifled a yawn. "Seems like it."

"Good. Can I just check?" Stiles held out his hand towards Derek.

Derek nodded and Stiles shut his eyes and slipped into his magical vision again. Lydia's pack bond had joined the display this time, a thin purple thread that only showed up when she was close by. Derek's bond was still dim, but the color had bounced back to the normal fiery red and it was glowing softly.

Stiles opened his eyes with a smile. "Yeah, you're definitely on the mend. Come on, sit down. We were just talking about why my magic acted the way it did."

Derek brushed past Stiles and dropped heavily into one of the kitchen chairs.

"You hungry, Derek?" Boyd asked as he popped the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth.

"Yeah, I guess so." Derek rubbed at his eyes.

Stiles slipped behind Boyd to grab two glasses of water, one for himself and one he set in front of Derek. Derek nodded his thanks and downed the glass in a few swallows.

"Did you take care of any of the little bastards?" Derek asked.

"Didn't see hide nor hair of any one of 'em," Isaac said.

"Pity. But maybe Stiles shot them far enough away they'll regroup elsewhere." Derek leaned heavily on the table.

"We're interrupting your rest, do you need to go back to sleep?" Stiles squeezed Derek's shoulder.

"I'm fine. Need to eat something."

"And here you are." Boyd set a sandwich down at Derek's elbow and retreated to sit next to Erica.

Derek nodded his thanks and took a big bite.

Stiles dragged up another chair and sat next to Derek, watching him slowly chew his way through the sandwich.

"He's fine, Stiles," Lydia said. "You checked him yourself, I checked him when I got here, it's a normal bit of magical exhaustion, nothing to work yourself up over."

Stiles huffed, but he leaned back in his chair and stopped watching Derek so intently.

"I'm dealing with some plain old physical exhaustion," Erica yawned. "Some of us have been up since five."

"Yeah, lets everyone go to bed. We can try looking for any more signs of them tomorrow. Isaac's the only one working tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, evening shift," Isaac said.

"I need a few hours to work on a paper," Boyd put in.

"God, me too," Stiles rubbed a hand over his face. "Let's try and meet in the morning, then, around..." Stiles glanced at his watch and winced at the time. "Around nine? And try to finish up by noon or one. Sound good?"

Everyone agreed and the betas all stood to leave, patting Derek's shoulder or ruffling his hair as they filed out of the kitchen. Derek really must have been exhausted since he didn't bother pretending to be offended by the affectionate touches.

"You need anything else before I go?" Stiles asked Derek while Lydia packed up her work.

"No," Derek shook his head. "Just need to get some more water and head to bed."

"Well I can help you with some of that at least." Stiles fetched the Brita pitcher from the fridge and filled Derek's glass, leaving the pitcher next to him. "Nothing else, you're sure?"

"I'm fine, I promise." Derek rolled his eyes.

"If you insist." Stiles squeezed Derek's shoulder one more time. "I'll be back before any of us wants to be, anyways."

Derek snorted and stood with a groan, taking the water pitcher with him as he shuffled off towards his bedroom.

"Alright, let's get out of here," Lydia grabbed Stiles' arm and towed him to the door, making sure to lock up behind themselves. "Once he's fully recovered we ought to do an experiment, see if we can reproduce the incident by making Derek a conduit again."

"Lydia," Stiles frowned, "I'm not doing that to him again on purpose." Stiles pointed back towards Derek's door as they walked away.

"Then don't do that again," Lydia said primly. "Focus more and see if you can tap into anything else beyond Derek before trying to perform a spell. We'll do it under controlled circumstances, it'll be fine." They reached Lydia's car first, and she stopped Stiles from walking away with a sharp tug on his sleeve. "Try and do some reading about those rituals, too. They could have some useful advice for how not to rip all the magic out of your alpha while connecting to the land."

Stiles grumbled under his breath, but he nodded. Lydia was right that they should try again, if he could reliably do magic like that the pack would have a lot fewer headaches to try and squeeze in between schoolwork and jobs. Unfortunately that probably meant he'd have to go borrow some books from Deaton this week.

===

Stiles saw Deaton a lot sooner than he intended; the man showed up at Derek's the next morning while the pack was getting ready to leave from Derek's and patrol the woods.

Derek answered the door, standing firmly in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Derek," Deaton said, smiling pleasantly, "good morning, can I come in?"

"What are you here for?" Derek growled. He was looking a lot better than the night before, but he was still grouchy and clearly not at his best.

"I noticed that the old wards activated last night, and I hoped you might know what caused that."

Derek went stiff, shoulders rolling a bit like he was about to shift.

"If you don't," Deaton went on, "then we might have a bigger problem on our hands than the shadow brocken in the woods."

"Wait, you know what those things are called?" Stiles asked over Derek's shoulder.

Derek growled quietly, but he stepped back and ushered Deaton into the house.

"Shadow brocken? Is that what you said? I've never heard of them."

"They're very rare; usually keep to the mountains. But like I said, that's not the most concerning thing out there right now."

"Right, the wards." Stiles wilted a little. He figured the wards had activated after years of fruitless attempts due to the maelstrom of magic he'd accidentally released last night, which Deaton was sure to be mad about.

"How do you know they've activated?" Boyd asked, zipping up their backpack with the emergency supplies.

"I felt a disturbance while I was meditating last night," Deaton said. Erica rolled her eyes expressively. "I went out to check one this morning and it seemed to be working to repel something. I visited two more that were doing the same thing before I came here."

Isaac sighed. "I guess that's why we couldn't find any of the shadow whatever last night. Waste of precious sleeping hours."

Deaton raised his eyebrows. "So you know what caused this?"

"So, I maybe had a little magical accident last night casting a shield spell and made more of a bomb spell instead," Stiles said. "Blew a bunch of shadow creatures we were fighting out of the hearing range of werewolves, and couldn't track any down after despite searching for a good couple of hours."

Deaton's eyebrows climbed farther up his forehead. "You turned a shielding spell into a _bomb_?"

"That's not the important part." Stiles waived a hand. "Maybe it was just a super aggressive shield, I don't know, no werewolves were thrown anywhere, but I did have more magic rip through me than I've ever felt before."

Deaton hummed, eyebrows settling back down. "Where were you when you cast the spell?"

"Not close enough to any leylines that I would have thought it mattered. Maybe five miles from the nemeton, about ten miles north of the new development on the east side, near those overgrown walking trails."

"I suppose that could have worked to activate them, a shield gone wildly off the rails. But the amount of pure magical energy you would have needed to make the spell reach that far are far beyond your normal capabilities."

"It definitely felt that way to me, believe me," Stiles shuddered, remembering how the magic burned as it surged through him.

"Most peculiar." Deaton rubbed at his jaw.

Lydia clapped her hands and broke the silence that was settling. "Change of plans for this morning, I think," she said brightly. "Let's see how many wards we can check before we have to get to our responsibilities. If Isaac is right and the wards really are keeping the creatures out then we'll only be wasting our time looking for them anyways."

"Sounds good to me." Erica jumped off the island counter where she had been sitting and grabbed Boyd's hand. "We ready?"

Derek looked around the room and nodded. "Thanks for coming by, Deaton," he said, walking towards the door and forcing Deaton to back up with him. "We'll look into the wards." He opened the door and ushered Deaton back out of the house.

Deaton went, but he was clearly less than happy about it. "We really need to look further into how Stiles was able to wield that much magic--"

"We're already doing that, I assure you." Derek smiled thinly. 

"Very well. I'll continue to keep watch on the wards. Please let me know if you make any discoveries."

Derek nodded and turned to lock up.

"Thank for the heads up, Doc." Stiles raised a hand in farewell.

Deaton frowned faintly. "Be careful, Stiles. Wielding so much magic at once can be very dangerous."

"I will keep that in mind, if I'm ever able to do it again."

Derek grabbed Stiles' arm and towed him towards Erica's old Jeep, the only car they had that would fit all six of them thanks to the front bench seat and Lydia's small frame. They waited until they were a few blocks away before Isaac broke the silence.

"So the wards. If they're really active and functioning properly, that would be huge, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah," Derek said, brows knitted in a frown, "my mom always said that without them we'd never be able to have a normal life."

"So we're saying that with the wards up we maybe wouldn't have to save the town every time we turn around?" Erica asked.

Derek shrugged. "Probably. The nemeton being active might change things, I don't know. But they're supposed to keep out anything that means us harm."

"But the nemeton hasn't been inactive for all that long, relatively speaking," Lydia said.

"You're right," Derek nodded. "It had been my whole life, but my mom never talked about having trouble with it when it was active, and she was in her twenties when it was cut down."

"It would be great if my biggest worry was just passing my classes," Boyd said.

"Don't get too excited," Derek grumbled. "The wards have to be sustained -- if Stiles can't replicate his magical accident it'll be a temporary break until the things run out of juice."

"Oh, thanks, Derek, so encouraging." Isaac rolled his eyes and turned to stare out the window.

"Don't get excited." Derek crossed his arms.

Lydia turned to give Stiles a significant look over the back of the seat. Stiles groaned. "I haven't even been able to find any books, let alone read them!"

"What are you talking about?" Boyd asked.

"Lydia wants me to try the thing again with Derek."

"What thing with me?" Derek growled.

"The, you know," Stiles waved his hands around aimlessly, "the magical explody thing."

Derek heaved a sigh and turned to look out the window. They were almost to a ward now. "Fine. I don't remember how often Mom went out with Deaton or whoever to recharge them, but I don't think it was more than once or twice a month. That's... manageable."

"Okay, I'm not sucking up all your magical energy once or twice a month, and you shouldn't agree to that, that's stupid and unnecessary!"

Derek bared his teeth and turned to look at Stiles. "Then what the hell are you--"

"We're here!" Erica yelled. "Please can we have the fight while we're not all trapped in the car with you?"

Derek snarled and shot out of the car. Stiles groaned and rolled his neck before following him.

Derek lead the way away from the dirt road. It only took about five minutes of hiking to reach the ward, an innocuous, stunted little tree with glyphs carved deep into the wood and three colourful rocks embedded in the bark on the east side, facing away from the town. Today, the rocks were glowing faintly, and the air was filled with a quiet hum.

"So that's definitely active, right?" Isaac said after they had all taken a moment just to stare.

"Yeah." Derek got closer and crouched down in front of the rocks, watching the tree intently. He raised a hand to gently stroke the bark and shivered as he touched it.

Lydia circled around to bend over Derek's shoulder. "How can we tell what it's doing?"

Derek shrugged.

Lydia sighed and straightened up. "I wish we could trust Deaton."

"Look!" Erica pointed out into the woods. "There's one of the shadow bracken or whatever!"

They all followed Erica's gaze to see one of the twisted creatures snarling at them from twenty yards beyond the ward. Derek growled and the creature chattered its sharp fangs while a second of its kind emerged to twine around it, faint rainbows scattering off their bodies where the sun came through the trees.

"Does that mean it is keeping them out?" Boyd asked as they watched a third creature waddle over to the other two on its hind legs. One of the creatures took a few steps toward them before it yelped and wheeled away, running back into the woods, the two others following.

Erica whooped in delight. "It does work!"

"Worth it," Derek muttered. Stiles turned to see him smiling faintly as he took in the grins on his betas' faces.

Stiles sighed and shook his head. "Stop it with the martyr attitude. We'll find a way to keep them up that doesn't abuse you."

Derek raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I agree with Derek on that one," Boyd said. "How are you planning to do that when you've been trying for literal years to get these up with no results?"

"Great, thanks for that vote of confidence, Boyd, really helps," Stiles said.

"Why don't you try now?" Lydia said. "Just something small, we don't need an explosion today."

"What do you need me to do?" Derek asked immediately.

Stiles groaned. "I need you to cool it so I can do more reading."

"Shirt off," Lydia said, ignoring Stiles. "I don't know how much you overheard last night, but we're thinking its the direct skin-on-skin connection from Stiles to you to the ground."

Derek whipped off his shirt and sat on the ground, digging his fingers into the dirt underneath a layer of pine needles and dead leaves. He looked up at Stiles expectantly.

"No!" Stiles crossed his arms. "I'm not doing it until we've had the time to research it. And besides, the wards are clearly working and plenty juiced up! I'm not going to hurt Derek for no reason."

"Come on," Lydia shoved Stiles towards Derek. "No one's asking you to hurt him. Just put your hands on him and see if you can feel vast reserves of magic through him."

Stiles hesitantly reached out to touch Derek's shoulders, snatching his hands away when Derek flinched.

"Come back," Derek huffed a little laugh, "your fingers are freezing, that's all."

The betas tittered and Stiles scowled at them while he put his hands back on Derek's (very warm) shoulders. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, falling into his magical vision again. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but he was pleased to see Derek's thread once again restored to it's normal brilliance, a thick rope of power feeding into Stiles' flame. Stiles focused in only on Derek and flexed his fingers against Derek's shoulders while he envisioned grabbing Derek's bond and pulling gently.

Power flooded Stiles so fast he nearly stumbled, his little candle of magic suddenly a roaring bonfire. He opened his mouth to announce his success when he heard Derek hiss through his teeth the way he did when he pulled arrows out of himself. "Derek?" Stiles said instead, opening his eyes and letting the magic drain away. Derek flinched and Stiles let go of him to hurry around and crouch down in front of him. "Did I hurt you?"

Derek kept his eyes squeezed shut and his face tipped down towards his chest. "Did it work?" he grunted.

"Yeah, I think so, but Derek what's going on with you?"

"It's fine." Derek looked up, squinting a little with watery eyes.

"It's not fine when it's clearly hurting you!" Stiles grabbed Derek's shoulder and shook him a little.

"It's _fine_ ," Derek repeated. "I can just feel the... energy or magic or whatever it is going through me. Feels like it doesn't fit in my body and it scrapes all the way up to your hands."

"Huh." Stiles sat back on his heels.

"That is fascinating," Lydia said from behind Stiles.

"I told you," Stiles turned to look at Lydia, "werewolves aren't natural magic conduits."

"I beg to differ," Lydia smirked, "this one clearly is! I felt the power flow into you through him."

"But it's hurting him."

Lydia shrugged. "So try again. Maybe it's a surface area problem; all that magic can only come up through his hands, and then has to funnel into your hands too."

Stiles sighed and turned back to Derek. It didn't seem like the worst idea. "You okay to try one more time? Then we can call it quits until after we do some more research."

"Fine," Derek insisted.

"Okay." Stiles rubbed at his shoulder. "Maybe take your pants off, too?"

Derek nodded and got up to kick off his boots and shuck his jeans. Erica wolf whistled and Derek rolled his eyes as he sat down again, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Like this?" he looked up at Stiles.

"Yeah, um, and I'll just--" Stiles tore his eyes away from Derek's body to stand up and fumble his way out of his hoodie and shirts, nearly tripping over his own feet as he walked around behind Derek again. This time he sat behind Derek, thighs on either side of Derek's hips, and wrapped his arms around Derek's naked torso, pulling Derek back to rest skin-to-skin against Stiles' chest.

"I did not think we were going to get soft core pornography when we came out here today," Isaac smirked.

Stiles tried to ignore Isaac and the way his own face was flaming. "This okay?" he asked Derek.

Derek nodded.

Stiles took a deep breath and shut his eyes, fingers flexing against Derek's skin as he tried pulling on Derek's pack bond again, focusing on being as gentle as possible. This time Derek made a surprised little sound as Stiles felt magic wash through him again.

"Is that better?" Stiles asked, concentrating hard to keep his hold on the magic.

"Yeah, that's..." Derek relaxed into Stiles' chest and tucked his face up against Stiles' neck. "That feels nice actually."

"Oh, well that's great, good idea, Lydia."

"Don't act so surprised," Lydia drawled.

"Derek, can you reach the ward?" Stiles asked.

"Probably with my foot." Derek squirmed against Stiles in a _very_ distracting way for a moment before Stiles' magical vision was suddenly flooded with burning points of brilliant red light.

Stiles flinched at the onslaught and he felt Derek's muscles flex as he tensed.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked.

"Nothing, I just think I can see all the wards now." Stiles slowly got used to the additions to his sight and recognized the shape the wards made around Beacon Hills -- he had been staring at a map marked with the wards in his bedroom everyday for the better part of five years, so he was intimately familiar with the imperfect circle they made.

"Are they all active?" Boyd asked.

"I think so?" Stiles shrugged. "They all look lit up, but I don't know what they would have looked like before. We'll just have to come back and check every so often, I guess."

Stiles heard a chittering noise and his eyes flew open, excess magic whooshing out of him like a popped balloon. He started to look around for the source of the noise, only to freeze when Derek let out a moan and practically melted against Stiles. "... Derek?" Stiles asked.

"Sorry," Derek mumbled, head lolling to the side until Stiles could feel Derek's eyelashes fluttering against his neck, "I told you it felt good."

"Yeah," Erica snickered, "you apparently weren't kidding."

"Did you guys hear that noise?" Stiles asked, desperately trying not to think about how Derek was boneless with apparent pleasure in his arms. His voice cracked embarrassingly.

"It's just one of the shadow creatures again," Boyd pointed out into the woods while Isaac and Erica dissolved into giggles. "It's not getting any closer than the others did."

"Okay." Stiles patted Derek's chest. "You ready to get up and get dressed, big guy? I think we're done here."

"Yeah, okay," Derek sighed. He rubbed his cheek on Stiles' collarbone before slowly sitting up and reaching for his shirt.

Stiles jumped up and pulled his clothes back on, turning around just in time to get an eyeful of Derek's boxer-clad ass as he bent over to put on his jeans. Stiles barely held back a squeak as he watched with wide eyes until Derek had his pants fully up. He turned away, cheeks hot, only to meet Erica's leer. He groaned and covered his face.

"A very successful morning," Lydia said, hands on her hips and a satisfied look on her face.

"I'll say," Erica grinned. She watched the lone shadow creature snuffle around beyond the wards. "If these things really work..." she trailed off.

"It'll be life-changing," Isaac finished.

Boyd snorted. "It'll make things a lot easier, that's for sure. Come on, let's go home. If we hurry I have time for a nap before I have to work on my paper."

"Here here," Stiles said, following Boyd back to Erica's car.

Derek fell into place next to Stiles on the short walk back. "When do you want to come out and check them again?"

Stiles shrugged. "Maybe Wednesday afternoon right after my last class?"

Derek nodded. "I'll meet you at campus."

"Great, uh, can't wait."

===

Stiles was nearly vibrating with nerves by the time Wednesday came around. When he came out of his last class Derek was leaning again the building watching the stream of students pour through the doors, looking like sex on legs as usual.

Stiles waved goodbye to Gina and headed over to Derek. "You ready for this?" Stiles asked as he approached.

"If I remember right I don't have to do anything but take off my clothes," Derek smirked.

"Derek!" Stiles hissed, grabbing Derek's elbow and dragging him toward the parking lot. "Don't say things like that where anyone can hear you!" Stiles looked around, letting out a little breath of relief when no one he knew was nearby.

Derek grinned, unconcerned.

"It's your reputation that would be ruined by dating me, you'd think you'd care a little more," Stiles tried to tease.

Derek shot Stiles a wry look. "Half this town still thinks I'm a serial killer who got away with it. Don't think I can go much lower than that."

"Okay, this got depressing fast," Stiles sighed. "He threw his backpack in the trunk of his Jeep. "Did you drive here?"

"Ran." Derek circled around to the passenger side and climbed in.

Stiles hopped into the driver seat and convinced the Jeep to start after a long sputter.

"You need me to take another look at this thing?" Derek frowned.

"She's fine!" Stiles insisted before deflating as he pulled out of the lot. "But if you have the time to look it wouldn't hurt. Seems like she's taking longer and longer to start lately."

"Bring it over on Saturday. You can borrow the Camaro if you need to go anywhere."

"Thanks, dude." They drove in silence for a few minutes before Stiles asked, "You feel fully recovered?"

"Yeah," Derek shrugged, "back to normal."

"And you haven't noticed anything unusual in the general territory? Erica said she saw one of the shadow creatures sniffing around beyond the wards on her patrol, and Boyd said he saw a will-o-the-whisp near the nemeton."

"Nothing unusual. Wards are still humming. Spoke to the sprites in the creek, explained about the wards. Saw the fairy colony, but they vanished before I could approach -- wanted to let them know, too, but I guess they're not that concerned if they don't want to talk to me. I saw a couple more of the shadows, too, but they've been keeping to the deep woods."

"Should we let anyone else know about them? They'll go somewhere else if they can't be here anymore."

Derek shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe they'll keep wandering around the edges of our territory. They're not close enough to anyone else's territory to concern them."

"I guess."

"I don't want to tell anyone else about our wards until we have to, anyways. Makes our territory too appealing to have a nemeton with protection from all the chaos that usually comes with one."

Stiles squinted at the road in front of him. "Did no one know about the wards before?"

"They knew. But our pack was strong and well connected -- it would have been too dangerous to try driving us out. Now, some might be willing to try."

"Do they not think they could activate the wards?"

Derek snorted. "They think if it were possible we would have done it ourselves already."

"Yeah, okay, that makes sense." Stiles pulled off onto a tiny dirt track, the Jeep bouncing through potholes. "How do we charge the wards if they need it?"

Derek shrugged. "You're the one who kick-started them."

"Great," Stiles sighed. He brought the Jeep to a stop at the end of the road.

"Just make another shield," Derek said as he got out of the car. "That's what did it before, why wouldn't it work again?"

"I don't know, Derek," Stiles locked the Jeep and trudged into the woods after Derek, "it's magic, nothing about it makes sense."

They reached the ward before long, another twisted little tree covered in sigils and with three glowing stones facing out into the woods, the same constant hum permeating the air around it.

"It looks fine." Stiles touched the tree and jumped, shaking out his hand after a strong feeling like static electricity raced through him at the touch. "It doesn't hurt you to touch, does it?" Stiles turned to look at Derek, only to find him already stripped down to his boxers. Stiles closed his eyes and sighed, wondering how he was supposed to deal with this every week or two without going insane.

"No, feels tingly, but it's not bad." Derek sat down next to Stiles. "Ready?"

"Do we even need to do magic? It's clearly still working."

Derek shrugged. "I guess not. But we're already here, why not plug in?"

"Okay." Stiles pulled off his shirts and sat behind Derek, wrapping his arms around Derek's warm, soft skin.

"Are you nervous?" Derek asked as he leaned back against Stiles' chest and rested his shin against the ward.

"I'm fine," Stiles said, wincing as his voice came out high-pitched and awkward.

Derek hummed and Stiles shut his eyes to escape the situation. He yanked at Derek's pack bond harder than he meant to, which made the whole situation backfire spectacularly as Derek moaned extravagantly, going limp in Stiles' grip.

"Fuck," Stiles whispered and tried to focus on the wards in his magical vision instead of the feel of Derek's skin and the way Derek was slowly rubbing his cheek against Stiles' collarbone. "I think they're fine," Stiles said, opening his eyes and watching Derek bite his lip and shiver as the magic flowed back through him.

Derek fluttered his eyes open and met Stiles' gaze. "I hope we never have to do this in the middle of a fight," Derek said breathlessly. "Do that a couple more times and I will have an orgasm."

"Holy fuck," Stiles' voice cracked as he tipped his head back and stared up at the canopy above them. "You absolutely cannot say things like that to me, Derek."

"Why?" Stiles looked back down to see Derek smirking up at him. "You wanna try and see if you can do it now?"

"Are you fucking drugged right now?" Stiles grabbed Derek by the chin and stared into his face -- his pupils were blown wide. "Is it the magic making you say this?"

Derek rolled his eyes. "No."

"Are you sure? Because you also seemed pretty slap-happy the last time we did this."

"I feel good," Derek shrugged. "Nothing more than that."

Stiles snorted. "Being drunk feels good too, doesn't mean you don't do things you regret while you're feeling good."

Derek sighed. "The wards looked good?"

"Yeah. Still bright." Stiles was a little disappointed that Derek was going to let that line of conversation drop so fast.

"So we can leave them alone for another few days. You bring your car over Saturday like we said, then we can go to dinner after I fix it. Then," Derek smirked, "we can see about orgasms after that."

Stiles let go of Derek to rub his hands over his face. "You're impossible. Are you asking me on a date now?"

"Yup." Derek popped the 'P' obnoxiously.

"Okay, fine, if you still feel the same way on Saturday, I'm all in. Now get up and get dressed, this is very awkward."

Derek grinned and hopped to his feet. Stiles very determinedly did not look over as they both pulled their clothes back on.

===

The next two days passed far too quickly for Stiles to prepare himself for the possibility of a date with Derek. The pack emergency group chat stayed quiet, and he didn't hear anything directly from Derek, either. Stiles' heart was in his throat as he pulled into Derek's wide driveway Saturday afternoon, the garage door open to show Derek at his work bench inside. He wasn't wearing a shirt because of fucking course he wasn't.

"Hey," Stiles said as he jumped out of the driver's seat, nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Stiles," Derek smiled, coming out into the driveway. "Did you change your mind about dinner tonight?"

"No. Did you, now that you're sober?"

Derek cocked his head. "Still not sure that I wasn't sober before, but no, I didn't either."

"Good, that's, ah, great." Stiles still felt like he might puke.

"Hey," Derek clapped a heavy hand to Stiles' shoulder, "relax. Eating together is not new."

"Yeah, but it's not normally followed by orgasms!"

Derek smirked. "Well we don't have to do that part if you don't want to."

"I very much do want to!"

"Come here." Derek stepped forward and wrapped his hands around Stiles' waist. "This okay?"

"Yup," Stiles said, sliding his hands up Derek's abs to rest on his pecks.

"Good," Derek smiled. He leaned in to kiss Stiles, lips soft and tentative against Stiles' mouth.

Stiles groaned and pressed back against him, sliding a hand up to grip Derek's hair. Stiles licked into Derek's mouth and Derek moaned, the same delicious little noise he'd been making in the woods. Derek pressed their bodies tighter together, and Stiles felt the weight of Derek's cock against his hip. They parted with a wet smack.

"That settle you down?" Derek asked, not moving any farther away.

"That did not make anything go down," Stiles grinned, flexing his hips pointedly against Derek's.

"Hmm." Derek bit his lip and knocked his forehead against Stiles'. "What about if we skipped straight to the orgasms?"

"As long as we still get to the actual date afterwards, yeah, I'm fine with that. And I do still need Roscoe looked at."

"We'll definitely get to all of that." Derek slid his hands down to grab Stiles' ass, rocking his cock against Stiles' hip. "What about if we moved to the backyard?"

"You're really serious about that?"

"Not kidding about how good it feels." Derek stepped back and grabbed Stiles' hand, dragging him into the backyard through the garage so he could shut the garage door on the way. "I've been trying really hard not to think about who my mom used to do that with."

Stiles choked out a startled laugh. "Careful, you'll spoil the mood."

"I think I can bring it back." Derek kicked off his boots and started taking off his pants, pulling down his boxers at the same time.

"Yeah, okay," Stiles said faintly, fumbling his way out of his clothes while staring at Derek preening in front of him. He tackled Derek into the grass, swallowing Derek's little laugh as he pressed himself full-length against Derek. He pulled back a little and shut his eyes, slipping into his magical vision again. "Let's see how loud I can make you moan."

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](https://moretomhardy.tumblr.com)! Although fair warning, I mostly multi-ship Geralt from The Witcher there these days.


End file.
